Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. We're right here every day bringing you the
Speaker 1: latest news from the world's of business and finance, plus technology, politics, economics,
Speaker 1: all harnessing the power of Business Week reporters and editors.
Speaker 1: And of course Carol that's part of a team of
Speaker 1: twenty seven hundred journalists and analysts more than a hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty countries and Jason. You can download Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week on iTunes, SoundCloud, bl Bloomberg dot com. You can
Speaker 1: also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio every weekday, or watch us on YouTube
Speaker 1: by searching Bloomberg Global News. So, Jason, I know you've
Speaker 1: been busy, um, and we're gonna talk a lot more
Speaker 1: about Lebron later, But there have been a lot of
Speaker 1: buyers headlines today. We've got New York moving to Phase
Speaker 1: three that starts on July six. You've had Texas as
Speaker 1: governor halt new phases of reopening in its state economy,
Speaker 1: also suspending elective surgeries in a bunch of big cities,
Speaker 1: and Florida once again showing a really big jump in
Speaker 1: new cases so lots of headlines. Jason Farley is a
Speaker 1: professor of nursing, an infectious disease trained nurse epidemiologist, and
Speaker 1: a nurse practitioner and the Division of Infectious Diseases at
Speaker 1: the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Medicine the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: School of Public Health. I just want to remind everybody,
Speaker 1: supported of course by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder Bloomberg LP
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Jason joining us on the phone from Baltimore. Jason,
Speaker 1: it is great to have you here with us, help
Speaker 1: us make sense of these headlines. You know, we are
Speaker 1: increasingly moving towards reopening. Most folks, CEOs and the like.
Speaker 1: Even people from the medical community like yourselves come on
Speaker 1: and say, we've got to move towards reopening. But how
Speaker 1: do you, you know, cross that with the increases we're
Speaker 1: seeing in some of the states around the country. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we have to look at the data so far,
Speaker 1: and the fact of the matter is is that the
Speaker 1: places that reopened early and fat are the ones seeing
Speaker 1: most of the spikes. Um. You know, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of delay in California, and so they're a little
Speaker 1: bit of an anomaly in those in the areas that
Speaker 1: we're seeing because they were more um methodical in their reopening.
Speaker 1: But um, what we're seeing is this return to normal
Speaker 1: life in many jurisdictions, and as a result, I returned
Speaker 1: to the need to lock down in several of these spots. UM. Houston,
Speaker 1: just noting specifically this really big rollback on my brothers
Speaker 1: right now in Houston for some cancer related treatment and
Speaker 1: and you know he's reporting that, you know, they're now
Speaker 1: messaging in the city right now that you know, we're
Speaker 1: about to think about canceling electrive surgery like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: and other related rollbacks. So the our decisions to open
Speaker 1: up too fast have you know, ultimate consequences? And so
Speaker 1: what do we do at this point? Because I know, Jason,
Speaker 1: there is real reluctance to completely shut down, But is
Speaker 1: that potentially the only choice from a medical perspective? And
Speaker 1: I think most importantly and you know this better than
Speaker 1: I from just a capacity perspect active in a bed perspective. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think you know what, what what places are
Speaker 1: seeing in terms of our concern really is can we
Speaker 1: meet the demand of hospitalizations and ultimately the demands of ice.
Speaker 1: It's the same concern that was before. And while we're
Speaker 1: better prepared in terms of PPE and and ventilator capacity,
Speaker 1: we are not better prepared in relation to surge capacity. Right,
Speaker 1: So we still have the same number of beds we've
Speaker 1: always had. We've turned other units into more functional I
Speaker 1: see you like units, and and also more of than
Speaker 1: a latter capacity and many settings. So those are all
Speaker 1: good things, and so we're better prepared, but we also
Speaker 1: still have a limited bandwidth in terms of the total
Speaker 1: bed capacity, the total health workforce capacity, and so when
Speaker 1: we see large spikes in cases, particularly large spikes in
Speaker 1: cases that result in substantial increases and hospitalization, it's the
Speaker 1: question at hand is can the health system you know,
Speaker 1: deal with that, sirs? And if so, is there any
Speaker 1: associated excess mortality in cases that may be delayed, in
Speaker 1: cases that may not receive optimal levels of treatment. Well,
Speaker 1: that's interesting and that's where I wanted to get to
Speaker 1: um Jason, if if I may, is that in terms
Speaker 1: of treatment though, it feels like we are making some
Speaker 1: progress with treatments for those who might have a moderate
Speaker 1: case or you know, m a severe case, and so
Speaker 1: maybe that is helping kind of stem some of the
Speaker 1: increases in the number that ultimately have to be in
Speaker 1: the hospital for a long time. Yea. So our our
Speaker 1: biggest um recent advance has been the data that came
Speaker 1: out on methzone. Now, yeah, dex A, meth zone is
Speaker 1: a great, you know, very cheap, very available steroid. And
Speaker 1: what the data show, dous is that basically patients who
Speaker 1: needed mechanical ventilation about twenty nine better mortality than in
Speaker 1: patients who did not receive the drugs. So so that's
Speaker 1: the at least a glimmer of hope for patients to
Speaker 1: need mechanical ventilation. And then in patients who needed oxygen
Speaker 1: supplemental oxygen support, so they weren't quite at a point
Speaker 1: of ventilation, but they were sick enough to need hospitalization
Speaker 1: and oxygenation. And in those patients, one in five or
Speaker 1: actually improved using the drug compared to those who did
Speaker 1: not receive the drug. However, there was no benefit whatsoever
Speaker 1: in patients with more mild or moderate that he had
Speaker 1: not yet needed hospitalization and not yet needed oxygenation. So
Speaker 1: what we've seen is is that if you are sick
Speaker 1: enough to need oxygenation, there is a benefit, and sick
Speaker 1: enough to need mechanical ventilation. There is even a bigger
Speaker 1: bit of it. So what that does the drug does
Speaker 1: is basically quiet the immune system. Right, it helps our
Speaker 1: bodies begin to heal, but not over respond. Let's get
Speaker 1: back to our conversation with Dr Jason Farley, professor at
Speaker 1: Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Johns Hopkins A
Speaker 1: Blueberg School of Public Health is you can probably tell
Speaker 1: by the name. It's supported by Mike Bloomberg, founder of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP, the parent of this radio station.
Speaker 1: Jason got to talk vaccines here. We hear so much
Speaker 1: about development. We hear about all the various things going on,
Speaker 1: some great collaboration going on across the world. What's realistic here? Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we are hearing some some glimmers of hope. You
Speaker 1: know that we've got the Maderna vaccine that is moving
Speaker 1: into phase three trials um and that's great because that's
Speaker 1: the final efficacy kind of level trial that we need.
Speaker 1: Does it works is it not? You know, the phase
Speaker 1: one in phase two are really about safety and what
Speaker 1: we would call immunogenicity. So does it does a vaccine
Speaker 1: actually produce an immune response? And so we've gotten the
Speaker 1: great data from that. A phase to study from Maderna
Speaker 1: has been completely enrolled and enrolled in like really really
Speaker 1: accelerated speed less than two weeks, I believe, um, which
Speaker 1: is all great news. That means answers about it, how
Speaker 1: good it's impact on the immune system is. But what
Speaker 1: we really must have to know for sure is the
Speaker 1: phase three thousand people study UM that will begin enrolling
Speaker 1: in July. All right, to walk us through that and
Speaker 1: understand and explain the timetable for that one, because this
Speaker 1: is this is to make sure it's really safe with
Speaker 1: lots of people. Yeah. Absolutely, So the FDA cleared and
Speaker 1: made that particular vaccine candidate, and they're they're many, so
Speaker 1: we are focused on just one at the moment. But
Speaker 1: so so with this particular vaccine candidate, they cleared it
Speaker 1: in May, gave it a dosing structure of a hundred
Speaker 1: micrograms to get the dose up for two vaccines one
Speaker 1: days apart, and then they're going to follow this cohort
Speaker 1: of patients for twelve months after those two vaccinations, and
Speaker 1: so they'll be looking at everything from does an immune
Speaker 1: response occur after vaccine, which we expect that it will
Speaker 1: and then how long does that last? And so ultimately
Speaker 1: one of the things that influences the speed in which
Speaker 1: we get answers is how many cases coronavirus we have
Speaker 1: because the lower the population incidents, right, the higher the
Speaker 1: number of people they have to enroll to find new cases.
Speaker 1: So that's real, that's really critical. So so that's why
Speaker 1: a worldwide study, that's why you know, you know, as
Speaker 1: many places that we can get to, some that have
Speaker 1: high incidents, some that have low incidents, is going to
Speaker 1: be really critical. It's interesting that you bring that up.
Speaker 1: And I was watching um a local news not a
Speaker 1: local network news piece last night and they were talking
Speaker 1: about I think it was a lot of testing. It's
Speaker 1: also going in I think was it Africa? Um, where
Speaker 1: they've lined up a lot of people. I mean, is
Speaker 1: this what's involved? Like we have to do this on
Speaker 1: a global scale? Absolutely, I mean we need to know
Speaker 1: because we've got to remember, does the vaccine work is
Speaker 1: the first question, and how does it work? And how much?
Speaker 1: How much does it? In response, we get how long
Speaker 1: did it last? And then does it work equally in
Speaker 1: all people and all populations? Right? Because there could be
Speaker 1: subtle differences genetically from a host perspective, sos as humans
Speaker 1: that that we need to just ensure that there is
Speaker 1: no difference in response across the world. So wait, wait
Speaker 1: to them, what does it mean if this goes through?
Speaker 1: Don't we get it when? Maybe? Yeah? So, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that's the billion billion dollar question, you know.
Speaker 1: Um So, obviously the FDA is going to be paying
Speaker 1: very very close attention study and and it's gotten already accelerated, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, status in terms of moving forward to production.
Speaker 1: Um So, the question is, you know, what's the incidents
Speaker 1: in that location? How many pass are expected in the
Speaker 1: placebo group, how many expected in the actual intervention group,
Speaker 1: and then how many do we actually see? And based
Speaker 1: on that data, the Data Safety Monitoring Board, which is
Speaker 1: the group that says, hey, we we have enough data
Speaker 1: that we can stop the study, and we can stop
Speaker 1: it early because we are sure of the answer will
Speaker 1: be following to tell us the answer to that question.
Speaker 1: So could it be the end of the year. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna let us go. Could it be the end
Speaker 1: of the year? Could it be or is it or
Speaker 1: is it more likely early? Next steer, I'm I'm thinking
Speaker 1: a landscape that's really into and I wouldn't even use
Speaker 1: the word early interesting. So Dr Jason Farley, last question
Speaker 1: for you, only about a minute left and you probably
Speaker 1: don't even need that much time. What do we need
Speaker 1: to do in the meantime, Because what Carol and I
Speaker 1: keep saying to each other wear a mask. Three words. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: common sense is what we need to do. There are
Speaker 1: the two words. Absolutely. All right, very good, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, really good to catch up with you, and uh,
Speaker 1: thanks for bouncing along with us as we try and
Speaker 1: figure out this this new world. You're on the front
Speaker 1: lines of this, and we always appreciate our friends down
Speaker 1: at john hop Johns Hopkins sharing their insights with us.
Speaker 1: Dr Jason Farley, Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing,
Speaker 1: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Of course, support
Speaker 1: to buy Mike Bloomberg. Carol, that gives me some optimism.
Speaker 1: And the thing is Maderna is doing one. But remember
Speaker 1: we've had guests on to that just and as as
Speaker 1: Jayson and pointed out that there are we know, like
Speaker 1: two hundred plus you know, um cases where people are
Speaker 1: pursuing different types of vaccines. And then there's probably equally
Speaker 1: that many just going after different types of treatments, you know,
Speaker 1: to deal with the virus at different stages. So there's
Speaker 1: got to be something that comes out of this, Yeah, everybody.
Speaker 1: So many people are just hoping for, you know, an
Speaker 1: almost like cinematic miracle, and look, maybe it will happen.
Speaker 1: You know that somebody there will be with all these
Speaker 1: brains focused on it, there'll be some breakthrough that helps
Speaker 1: us solve this. I mean, here's hoping for sure. I
Speaker 1: do believe in science, so I do too. It's a
Speaker 1: good thing. I'm an optimist too, and I really love
Speaker 1: to see everybody kind of what was the resilient Optimists.
Speaker 1: That was good Grossman, that's another T shirt, exactly, so
Speaker 1: many T shirts. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. The cover story
Speaker 1: might have heard in Bloomberg Business Week this week. It's
Speaker 1: all about lebron Jay James and Maverick Carter, the company
Speaker 1: that they're building a big multi media extravaganza that I
Speaker 1: pulled off with my very good friend Joe Weber, who
Speaker 1: is the most patient man on the planet. Before we
Speaker 1: get to him, let's listen to a little bit of
Speaker 1: that interview. There is something about this company that feels
Speaker 1: not to be glib about it, but very l A
Speaker 1: in many ways, walking around seeing seeing people. What do
Speaker 1: you take from sort of l A that informs what
Speaker 1: this has become. It all stems from from my upbringing
Speaker 1: interest them from from Akron. It all stem from all
Speaker 1: these people that we've met along the way that grow
Speaker 1: up in similar situations. And for us, when we when
Speaker 1: we talk about storytelling, we want to be able to
Speaker 1: hit home hit a lot of homes where they feel
Speaker 1: like they can be just as part as that story
Speaker 1: or they feel like, oh, you know what, I can
Speaker 1: relate to that story because I am someone that's going
Speaker 1: through that same situation. So, you know, being authentic to
Speaker 1: what we do as far if it's you know, TV,
Speaker 1: if it's digital, if it's uh, if it's apparel, whatever
Speaker 1: the case may be, just trying to to hit home
Speaker 1: on in living rooms, you know, in families and households,
Speaker 1: and we've been able to capture that because our stories
Speaker 1: are very authentic. So you know, it's because we're here
Speaker 1: in l A and we use a lot of facilities
Speaker 1: that's here. You know, you know that that is the
Speaker 1: correlation with that, But as far as what we do, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's very organic to it, you know, to
Speaker 1: our bringing. It's the platform, but also it's the when
Speaker 1: you grew up like Lebron I did. It's more than anything, honestly,
Speaker 1: it's the exposure because when you grew up in a
Speaker 1: place like we are, no matter how talented you are,
Speaker 1: no matter how good you are at something and you
Speaker 1: believe it, if you don't even know things exist then
Speaker 1: and you're not exposed to them, then there's no way
Speaker 1: for you to ever even feel in power because you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm confined to this small world. And because of him,
Speaker 1: as I said that he was my platform, then I
Speaker 1: got exposed to this big world. So now as a company,
Speaker 1: we feel that's our duty too. Is is a lot
Speaker 1: of exposure, exposures through storytelling, exposure through experiences, exposure through
Speaker 1: job creation. At our company, we have you coming to
Speaker 1: our company. There's people from all over the country, all
Speaker 1: different walks of life. All right, Well, that is a
Speaker 1: part of my conversation, actually part of the February conversation
Speaker 1: I had in Los Angeles with Lebron James and Maverick
Speaker 1: Carter Maverick being the second voice you heard there. Let's
Speaker 1: bring in Joe Webber, the editor of Bloomberg business Week,
Speaker 1: and Carol. Not to turn this too much into a
Speaker 1: love fest, but I cannot say enough good things about
Speaker 1: Joel Webber on this story because he has been my
Speaker 1: partner through all of this and just a relentless supporter.
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful to him and so happy to have him.
Speaker 1: So exhausted he had to take a vacation in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: Did a leave Brooklyn and take a break. Jason Kelly,
Speaker 1: I wore him out. I wore him out. So Joel,
Speaker 1: I mean, let's talk about this. What your thought when
Speaker 1: we started talking about it, UM what how is how
Speaker 1: does Lebron James get a hundred million dollars and then
Speaker 1: what does he do with it? And you know that
Speaker 1: that remains like, UM, you know, I think this really
Speaker 1: interesting business decision and talk about the most perfect moment
Speaker 1: in the world to to have UM capital at your
Speaker 1: back and have this big idea and a strategy that
Speaker 1: they're going to execute. I just think it's going to
Speaker 1: be a kind of uh, just a behemoth UM and Jason,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, one of the ways that you
Speaker 1: sort of were able to articulate this was it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a mashup of sort of how you know,
Speaker 1: you said, like one inspiration is kind of Disney, frankly,
Speaker 1: which is obviously in their backyard um in l A.
Speaker 1: When you talk to them, what what kind of uh,
Speaker 1: what kind of strategy do you feel like they're gonna
Speaker 1: unveil going forward and regarding content. Well, I'm glad you
Speaker 1: brought that up, because throughout this whole process, you and
Speaker 1: I and Jim Hailey, one of the senior editors one
Speaker 1: of your deputies on Blueberg Business Week, we would get
Speaker 1: together when we used to be able to get together
Speaker 1: and say, so, what is this thing? And and and
Speaker 1: it's it's a great question, and it is you know,
Speaker 1: Maverick cartercles at the House of Brands, and Jim Alee
Speaker 1: actually was the one who came up with this nice
Speaker 1: thing in the story where I think we say it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's part Disney, it's part Nike, it's part
Speaker 1: Patagonia in some ways, Carol, because they're the way you
Speaker 1: describe the facial mission underneath it that obviously has come
Speaker 1: to the four I think especially right now. Can I
Speaker 1: just say, first of all, the cover when Jason shared
Speaker 1: it with me, jahal like gets spectacular and it just
Speaker 1: made me stop. And I think I've been thinking so much,
Speaker 1: really deeply, as many of us have been, certainly about
Speaker 1: the virus and the impact and the inequalities that have
Speaker 1: been you know, laid bare, and then of course what
Speaker 1: happened in Minneapolis and racism and talking about things over
Speaker 1: the last month, and I just felt like, man, you know,
Speaker 1: we need to see more companies like Lebron and Maverick
Speaker 1: Carter are building right where diversity is just intrinsic to
Speaker 1: what they're doing. Yeah, that's right, I mean, And to
Speaker 1: be clear, you we should. You know, we shot Maverick
Speaker 1: and Lebron together, and um, I did have this thought
Speaker 1: which was like, we shot them before the pandemic, and
Speaker 1: you know, they're very up close and comfortable. They are
Speaker 1: not so they are not socially distanced, they are not
Speaker 1: wearing a mask. But it was taken before the pandemic
Speaker 1: kit and you know, um, Jason and I had a
Speaker 1: nice little tug of war of like do you do
Speaker 1: you do Lebron solo or do you do Maverick and Lebron,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you're crazy, Like Lebron is the
Speaker 1: arguably the most recognizable human on the planet, Like, how
Speaker 1: could you not do them solo? And and I think
Speaker 1: Jason made a really strong point, which I you know,
Speaker 1: we we ended up reinforcing with the cover line which
Speaker 1: became the King and the CEO, which is he didn't
Speaker 1: build this thing on his own right, and he's got
Speaker 1: on a network. Maverick and he have been together for years.
Speaker 1: You know, they go back to Akron high school days
Speaker 1: together and you know, Maverick Um has been with him,
Speaker 1: and you know, even like the decision when Lebron announced
Speaker 1: that he was going to Miami taking his talents to
Speaker 1: South Beach, you know, Maverick was was there. And I
Speaker 1: also think that speaks to like the journey that they've
Speaker 1: been on, because I think that they would acknowledge that
Speaker 1: that would didn't go well, but it was a learning
Speaker 1: experience and it helps inform how they make business decisions
Speaker 1: today and going forward, because I'm sure there will be more.
Speaker 1: It absolutely does. Yeah. Well, our thanks to Joel Webber
Speaker 1: My personal thanks to Joel Webber, the editor of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: business Week. He and I've been doing this together back
Speaker 1: when he was an editor on Bloomberg Markets, then the
Speaker 1: editor of Bloomberg Markets, now of course the editor. My
Speaker 1: garden has grown in the time that you guys have
Speaker 1: been working on this. I'm just saying we've been working
Speaker 1: on this one for a long time, but really happy
Speaker 1: it got over the finish line. And anyway, Joel Webber
Speaker 1: joining us from Massachusetts. This is Bloomberg Business Week with
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. So I
Speaker 1: have to say that this story definitely caught my attention. UM,
Speaker 1: and maybe because last night I was kind of actually
Speaker 1: looking at the cannabis industry and the CBD consumer It's
Speaker 1: like last night, it's been a long week already, it
Speaker 1: was Wednesday. My husband I said, no, no, no. But
Speaker 1: what's interesting is there's someone that we talked to a
Speaker 1: lot about the cannabis industry, especially CBD Consumer, UM, who
Speaker 1: is no longer CEO of that company anymore. So we've
Speaker 1: seen some fallout. The industry definitely going through some growing pains. UM.
Speaker 1: This story on the Bloomberg this morning about pot m
Speaker 1: and as mystery antitrust reviews linked to a crackdown by
Speaker 1: the U S. Attorney General William Barr. I wanted to
Speaker 1: do this story. David McLaughlin is with us, his Department
Speaker 1: of Justice reporter at Bloomberg News. He joins us on
Speaker 1: the phone in Washington, d C. So, David, what's going
Speaker 1: on right? So? Um, there was a hearing yesterday about
Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill about politicization of the Justice Department under
Speaker 1: Attorney General William Barr. And you know, most of the
Speaker 1: focus on the hearing was it was about Roger Stone.
Speaker 1: But but there was this interesting piece of it that
Speaker 1: was focused on marijuana mergers, cannabis mergers. And according to
Speaker 1: this whistleblower who testified and uh he's a lawyer inside
Speaker 1: the in the Justice Department's Andy Trust Division, he said
Speaker 1: that the Attorney General William Barr ordered basically special scrutiny
Speaker 1: of these mergers because he had a sort of personal
Speaker 1: dislike for the industry. And so that was unusual because
Speaker 1: un be pretty fragmented. You know, it there's not you know,
Speaker 1: there are many companies. It's not like a consolidate industry
Speaker 1: like you know, mobile phones carriers or for other industries
Speaker 1: that might get come of a lot the tension. Um,
Speaker 1: so this was kind of strange at the time, and
Speaker 1: now we know now we know why according you know
Speaker 1: this was the blower is correct? Well, you know, I
Speaker 1: was going to ask you another question about the weed business, David,
Speaker 1: but but I have to say what you said leaves
Speaker 1: me in another direction, which I think you you know
Speaker 1: the story so well, which is this is a different
Speaker 1: sort of Department of Justice that we're seeing, fair to say,
Speaker 1: or a different justice or a different Attorney general. Maybe, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, I mean this, UM, a lot of controversy
Speaker 1: about the Justice Department right now. UM. So obviously the
Speaker 1: high profile cases are things like Roger Stone and Michael
Speaker 1: Flynn and UM William Barr's involvement in both of those cases,
Speaker 1: that's gotten a lot of the headlines. But in terms
Speaker 1: of business case is on any trust, there's been controversy
Speaker 1: there too. So if you go back to the beginning
Speaker 1: of the administration, there was controversy about, um, the Justice
Speaker 1: Department tried to blog a T and T S take
Speaker 1: over a time warner and that got caught up under
Speaker 1: or over Trump's criticism of CNN. Was that political? Um,
Speaker 1: there was controversy about an investigation into the automakers for
Speaker 1: automakers that reached an agreement with California about admissions that
Speaker 1: Trump didn't like, and then the Justice Department for investigations,
Speaker 1: so that seemed very political. Of the marijuana case, there
Speaker 1: are many of them, and so these these criticism keeps
Speaker 1: coming up. But what I think about for the marijuana industry, right,
Speaker 1: it's a Nassan industry. It's definitely gone through no pun intended,
Speaker 1: you know, growing pains. We saw an explosion, you know,
Speaker 1: whether it was Canadian companies and US companies. We talked
Speaker 1: about out you know, Jason, I would have a lot
Speaker 1: of guests CEOs who are running different companies, you know,
Speaker 1: and most I think we're pointing to you're going to
Speaker 1: have to see consolidation, right and really create stronger players.
Speaker 1: It just made sense, you know, to be able to
Speaker 1: deal with especially because the regulatory environment was taking so
Speaker 1: long to kind of get its act together. And I
Speaker 1: do wonder what role potentially, David, that this kind of
Speaker 1: slowdown potentially by the U. S. Attorney General, what impact
Speaker 1: it's had on the industry unfairly so perhaps, right, So,
Speaker 1: you know, these reviews, because they were ordered by by A. G.
Speaker 1: Barr Uh these in depth in investigations and murders can
Speaker 1: be really burdened some so, like we interviewed UM, the
Speaker 1: head of one of these companies. He talked about how
Speaker 1: you responding to the Justice Department's request for information cuts
Speaker 1: you know, millions of dollars. That takes many, many months
Speaker 1: to satisfy the government's questions and their demands for information.
Speaker 1: So that kind of uncertainty, I mean that is that
Speaker 1: for really for any merger UM that kind of waited
Speaker 1: girion UM. But in this case, UM, a lot of
Speaker 1: companies were getting We're being affected by and so in fact,
Speaker 1: one of the deals, even though it eventually got approval
Speaker 1: of the companies, blamed this delay, we're having to ultimately
Speaker 1: terminate the merger. Wow. Yeah, I mean this is having
Speaker 1: real world consequences for these companies in an industry that
Speaker 1: and we know this, Carol, and you mentioned this from
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg fifty and others has been booming in many ways,
Speaker 1: certainly in Canada and across the United States as well.
Speaker 1: Some really nice reporting. Thank you so much. David McLaughlin,
Speaker 1: Department of Justice reporter for Bloomberg News on pot M
Speaker 1: and a's mystery anti trust review. Well they are going
Speaker 1: back to a g bar. Yeah, don't you feel like
Speaker 1: little doom to take it? So? But don't you feel
Speaker 1: like for so long we worked constantly doing interviews with CEOs,
Speaker 1: and I feel like the momentum has slowed down, like
Speaker 1: we even't had the conversations. Yeah, yeah, well, I mean
Speaker 1: it was a very acquisitive industry. I mean that's how
Speaker 1: it was getting built. Bobby d just let it play.
Speaker 1: I'm road journal. Yeah, but you let me drive? Oh no, no, no, no, honey, please,
Speaker 1: I'll do the riding drivel. I want to drive, Just drive,
Speaker 1: baby questions trying. This is the drive to the globe.
Speaker 1: Give me thanks. We'll drying us down on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: It is time for the drive to the close back
Speaker 1: with us as Alan Lance, he's research director at lants
Speaker 1: Global dot com, President of allenby Lance and Associates. Allen
Speaker 1: joining us once again on the phone from Toledo. Hi, Allen,
Speaker 1: great to have you here again with Jason and myself.
Speaker 1: I was looking at my notes that you sent over
Speaker 1: and you are lands Global that is at its highest
Speaker 1: cash level since late summer two thousand seven. Not because
Speaker 1: you're a bear, though, because of profit taking. Yes, you know,
Speaker 1: this has been pretty predictable. You know COVID, Uh, you
Speaker 1: know the way the market has gone and and and basically, Carol,
Speaker 1: what we've seen is that initially the market hit new
Speaker 1: highs into February, even though people were aware of COVID
Speaker 1: the melt, most investors underestimated the impact. And then as
Speaker 1: a sell off began, Uh, you know, what we did
Speaker 1: is we focused on uh companies that we thought that
Speaker 1: would come out of the pandemic even stronger than they
Speaker 1: went into. So we were buying the Amazons and the
Speaker 1: weakness and and and ups and Amazon had only a
Speaker 1: few days of weakness really and it was gone straight
Speaker 1: up since UPS has been up and down. So we
Speaker 1: just stuck to our price parameter. And then as a
Speaker 1: sell off intensified, we bought the fortress balance heat companies,
Speaker 1: and into the depths of of the sell off, we
Speaker 1: started buying the cyclicals. Our latest purchases last month were
Speaker 1: the travel industry, which we avoided the whole way through,
Speaker 1: and um those had really rebounded in the past few weeks.
Speaker 1: And we took profits this week. And I'm figuring that
Speaker 1: it's a little bit a long way before the even
Speaker 1: international routes are are going to be uh anywhere back
Speaker 1: to normal. I mean we're talking a year or two
Speaker 1: and a lot of those stocks had really uh surged
Speaker 1: and rebounded quite impressively, actually more so than we expected.
Speaker 1: Uh and uh, you know, we thought that profit taking
Speaker 1: was warranted and so Alan, how much do you worry
Speaker 1: about a second wave when it comes to coronavirus here
Speaker 1: affecting especially some of those particular names you're talking about. Yeah, definitely, Jason,
Speaker 1: And that's why we we got out of the travel
Speaker 1: UM as far as sector completely, anything related to travel,
Speaker 1: we'd recommend avoiding or at least being dramatically underweight. And
Speaker 1: you know, right now, what we were buying like today
Speaker 1: is like a fives or under thirty two or has
Speaker 1: a you know three and a half three and three
Speaker 1: quarter percent yield mark at seventy five um you know,
Speaker 1: boring companies like IBM a a hundred and fifteen with
Speaker 1: a five and three quarter percent yield, or we added
Speaker 1: coke for the first time in years UM training at
Speaker 1: four with you know, again a very impressive yield, boring companies,
Speaker 1: but I think, uh, you know, I'd rather have that
Speaker 1: in into a second wave than owning a cruise uh
Speaker 1: you know company or or an airline at this stage.
Speaker 1: And and if you own the SMP five hundred, if
Speaker 1: you're a passive investor, I mean you own a lot
Speaker 1: of airlines and a lot of cruise companies and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, if you weren't uh smart enough to take
Speaker 1: profits in February when the market was hitting all time highs,
Speaker 1: that think this is a gift here where where some
Speaker 1: of these travel related companies have not really factored in
Speaker 1: a second wave. And as we see that more and
Speaker 1: more here, I think there's more risk than reward and
Speaker 1: that's what we really look at it with each investment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, is it safe to say, Alan, I don't
Speaker 1: know how you look at this. And obviously you're looking
Speaker 1: at you know, individual stocks and whether it makes sense
Speaker 1: or not to to own them at this point, but
Speaker 1: you've got to look at an industry like airline or hospitality.
Speaker 1: I mean we're already seeing it, certainly the fringes of retail.
Speaker 1: Increasingly companies that were just on the edge, you know,
Speaker 1: either filing for bankruptcy. But what about when it comes
Speaker 1: to the airline industry, do you anticipate that there might
Speaker 1: be a big name that just doesn't make it through. Well,
Speaker 1: it's been an amazing thing, this floodl liquidity care all,
Speaker 1: you know, between the central banks that fed and and
Speaker 1: even you know uh uh as far as UH in
Speaker 1: the markets in general, there hasn't been really a problem
Speaker 1: with raising UH money in this environment. And that is
Speaker 1: really I think what fueled these uh graval hospitality related
Speaker 1: stocks to to to really surge beyond what we expected.
Speaker 1: And like I said, I consider that as a gift
Speaker 1: because I mean, they are getting money. Interest rates are low,
Speaker 1: it's cheap, and and you know it might they might
Speaker 1: avoid bankruptcy. But boy, it's gonna be a difficult environment.
Speaker 1: I'd much rather be in the names that I just
Speaker 1: talked about and buying those in the weakness than chasing
Speaker 1: airlines or or or um you know, the cruise cruise companies.
Speaker 1: At this stage, you got to pay back the debt.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say, at some point in fashion. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so Alan, before we let you go, you mentioned a
Speaker 1: couple of names coming into the top of this. But
Speaker 1: UH tech stocks, I mean just defining gravity and and
Speaker 1: leading the way in so many cases, how do you
Speaker 1: play that at this point in the cycle, and at
Speaker 1: this point in the pandemic, I guess, well, it's really difficult.
Speaker 1: We we transferred a gatten a lot of new accounts,
Speaker 1: and you know, they might have the nasda q q
Speaker 1: q s and they might have the SMP. And the
Speaker 1: way we play that is we keep the NASDAK and
Speaker 1: then sell the SMP because we don't want those travel
Speaker 1: related companies. So so we like tech, we like healthcare,
Speaker 1: and healthcare is underperformed, and even to financials will probably
Speaker 1: the next area if you see a sell off, that
Speaker 1: will buy just again the highest quality companies that have
Speaker 1: a good, strong income stream. But I think that's the
Speaker 1: best way to play it is just to be smart
Speaker 1: and use these extreme uh as far as moves up
Speaker 1: and down to your advantage. So so when you have
Speaker 1: eight straight days up on the NASDAC, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: take some profits and and then uh you know, when
Speaker 1: you get these uh sell offs, you know, try to
Speaker 1: uh prepare your buy list and and accumulate wisely. And
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna be you know, the difference maker
Speaker 1: into the balance of this year and in the one
Speaker 1: the discipline investor is going to do a lot better
Speaker 1: than the passive investor or or the investor that's jasm
Speaker 1: at Um. Don't be too greedy either, Yeah, exactly. Strong
Speaker 1: stomach this market takes all right, Alan Lance, I send
Speaker 1: like Yoda just then, director of research for Lance Global
Speaker 1: dot Com, President of Allan by Lance and Associates. Jonny's
Speaker 1: on the phone from Toledo, Ohio. Better Yoda than Dorothy.
Speaker 1: Strong stomach, This market takes. I don't even know what
Speaker 1: I'm doing at this point. I'm so tired. We're gonna
Speaker 1: count everybody down at the closing bell, even though we're
Speaker 1: kind of up near our euves of the session. I
Speaker 1: was just looking at the weekly numbers. DAOs and p
Speaker 1: are down a little bit, about seven tons of a
Speaker 1: percent for the week. Over all, nastacs a little bit higher.
Speaker 1: We still have another day to go. But that's been
Speaker 1: the tone this week, Jason. I don't know who is
Speaker 1: what's going on with the music today, but it isn't
Speaker 1: fired like my playlist, Like I just want this playlist
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna go sit up back. Can I just
Speaker 1: do that little Ohio here deal? Young, great stuff. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the
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